Saturday, March 2, 2013

In 2002, my friend and vocal coach Wendy Adams was accepted as a finalist at the Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition. I'd never heard of the contest before. I showed up because I wanted to hear Wendy.

And I was so happy I did. Wendy was fabulous, as expected, but I grooved on the entire event. Ten finalists, two hours, so much great music, such a great atmosphere.

I decided that one day, I wanted to be playing up there.

Just one problem. Supposedly only acoustic instruments were allowed. I kept forgetting to find out if they meant that literally, or if keyboards that sounded like pianos were kosher. I kept missing the application dates. (This is why Ron the Drummer handles our booking.) Next year I'll remember, I thought every time.

The question was finally put to rest last year, when I saw Amber Norgaard play in the competition ... with her keyboard. I swore to myself that I wouldn't let the date go by again for 2013. This time I would apply.

So I did.

And I'm in.

Save the date. The contest is Saturday, May 4th, from noon to 2 p.m. MST. It will be broadcast on KXCI (and streamed on kxci.org) 90 minutes later. Each participant plays two songs each. We won't know what order we're in until we're there, but that's OK. You'll seriously want to stay for the whole thing. I promise it will be a good time.